I'm pretty sure that they're being used as quotes or some other form of "italics" in the actual license or 方針 that they're referencing. And since it's part of the title, they reference it similarly in the article.

That answers the question well. In English it's uncommon to see a bulleted list inline (all in one line) unless space is extremely limited (for instance, if restricted to 2 or 3 lines of space at the bottom of some other document). For inline lists, English uses either commas, or a colon and semicolons, like: item 1; item 2; (and) item 3. Also, there were only two bullets (confusable for a pair like「」), ▽ is rarely used as a bullet in English (• is the standard symbol), and there were no spaces on either side of ▽. Together, these made it not very obvious.

Hyperworm wrote:In English it's uncommon to see a bulleted list inline (all in one line) unless space is extremely limited (for instance, if restricted to 2 or 3 lines of space at the bottom of some other document). For inline lists, English uses either commas, or a colon and semicolons, like: item 1; item 2; (and) item 3.

I often used numbered (but not bulleted) lists inline. For example: 1) like this, 2) like this, and 3) like this.

So it's a way of listing things? That was one of my options, but as I never fully cracked the sentence, I wasn't sure...Nilecat, I have never seen this type of sign in Dutch or English newspapers (which is not the same as 'they don't exist'). We would probably tend to use numbers of letters as Kef mentioned, or maybe the very straightforward bullet point.But it's funny to notice that this is so normal to you, you even have difficulties understanding what the question was

In the article, ▼ is used as "new line".But it is not "common". Only some newspaper editors use it today.

Nevertheless, the concept is quite easy to understand for every Japanese.Because, (this is important), this style was originally created for indicating new lines in 縦書き(vertically writing).In that sense, it seems a bit strange to see those symbols in 横書きeven for us. Ok?

Plus, because we usually write 横書き nowadays, those symbols have got to be used in other situations. Sometimes in different ways from its original "proper" usage. ("like bullet points in a line" is an example)

As far as I know, it is the explanation.

Last edited by NileCat on Sat 09.26.2009 6:31 am, edited 2 times in total.

katafei wrote:I have never seen this type of sign in Dutch or English newspapers (which is not the same as 'they don't exist').

By the way, that "symbol" is a nabla ∇ which is used in differential geometry to indicate a covariant derivative (and to distinguish such a derivative from a "normal" or partial derivative ∂ ...) that is why it looks a bit weird for me to see in a text.

katafei wrote:I have never seen this type of sign in Dutch or English newspapers (which is not the same as 'they don't exist').

By the way, that "symbol" is a nabla ∇ which is used in differential geometry to indicate a covariant derivative (and to distinguish such a derivative from a "normal" or partial derivative ∂ ...) that is why it looks a bit weird for me to see in a text.